Exploring water life along Mekong Delta

Stretching roughly 2,600 miles (4,184 kilometers) from Tibet to the South China Sea, the sinuous Mekong is the thread that connects Indochina's diverse cultures. It flows through six nations—China, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam—and with more than 1,200, it has the third highest diversity of fish species in the world (only the Amazon and the Congo have more). For the past 800 years, explorers from Kublai Khan to Frenchman Francis Garnier have sought to conquer the river and the region that surrounds it, sending warrior hordes south toward Cambodia's Angkor Wat or dispatching parties in dugout canoes north from Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). These early expeditions survived tigers, leeches, and quicksand, but never completely penetrated the Mekong Basin or reached the river's source, in Tibet.

With travel restrictions easing and British and American expatriates establishing new adventure travel companies, more of the Mekong has opened up to travelers over the past ten years than during centuries of exploration. Remote stretches of the river in Laos as well as jagged peaks edging the river in China are now destinations for outfitted trips—inflatable-kayak tours of isolated villages, mountain bike excursions through the surrounding countryside, and 4WD expeditions near the river's headwaters. From source to mouth, many of the communities along the Mekong continue to live as they have for hundreds of years. Using the river as your guide is the best way to witness these cultures in their most intact form.

Float by Riverboat
An expedition cruise between Ho Chi Minh City and Siem Reap allows you to see more of the region in less time than on self-powered journeys. Pandaw Cruises runs two custom-built colonial-era teakwood steamers up and down the river. You'll float past Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, and go ashore to hike the country's Wat Hanchai hill, home to ancient Champa shrines. Onboard, languorous hours are spent sipping gin-and-tonics on the deck as the jungle drifts by.

Cruise details:
A shipping link between Saigon and Angkor is immensely practical for the traveller as it makes Pandaw cruises possible to connect three important destinations on one trip with easy plane connections at either end: Saigon the exotic Frenchified former capital of South Vietnam, Phnom Penh, the quaint Cambodian capital, and the stupendous World Heritage monuments at Angkor. One need no longer check in and out of hotels and endure bumpy roads to visit these magnificent places. In Land Tour Section you will see that the Pandaw cruise has selected the most fitting hotel partners in both Saigon and Angkor.
Length: 200ft / 60m
Beam: 36ft / 11m
Draught: 4ft / 1.5m
Berths: 64 pax
Decks: 4: Lower, Main, Upper, Sun
Engines: 2 x 550bhp Isuzu
Propulsion: Inboard system
Built: 2003

Trip Details:
The trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap ($1,343; www.mekonghalongbaycruise.com) lasts eight days and travels a stretch of the Mekong that is more populated than the riverbanks in Laos. Side trips to Angkor Wat can also be arranged by contact to Tel: 0084 - 43 -6339577 / sales@mekonghalongbaycruise.com